Yemen President Ali Abdulla Saleh
Now in Saudi Arabia
Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh has flown to Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, a day after he was wounded, Saudi officials say.Uncertainty surrounded Mr Saleh's whereabouts for much of Saturday.An uprising demanding that Mr Saleh leave power has led to violence bringing Yemen close to civil war.The Yemeni president arrived in the Saudi capital Riyadh aboard a Saudi medical plane. A source told Reuters news agency that Mr Saleh walked off the plane after arriving in Riyadh, but had visible wounds to his face, neck and head.A second plane carried members of the president's family, AFP news agency said, quoting an unnamed Saudi official.Mr Saleh and several senior officials were praying at the al-Nahdayn mosque inside the presidential compound in the south of Sanaa on Friday afternoon at the time of the attack.
The mosque was originally thought to have been hit by rockets, but there are now suggestions someone may have planted a bomb there. The president broadcast an audio message on Friday ,4th June,2011,after he was wounded but did not appeared in public.
In the broadcast, he blamed the attack on an 'outlaw gang' of his tribal foes - an accusation denied by Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, the head of the Hashid tribal federation, whose fighters have been clashing with security forces.More than 160 people have been killed in the fighting that began on 23 May and has brought Yemen to the brink of civil war.After reports of a Saudi-brokered ceasefire, Sanaa was calm for much of Saturday.The prominent Ahmar family has been financing the opposition and helping sustain protesters, who have been demanding Mr Saleh's resignation since January despite a crackdown that has left at least 350 people dead.
Western and regional powers have been urging Mr Saleh to sign a Gulf Co-operation Council-brokered deal that would see him hand over power to his deputy in return for an amnesty from prosecution.(From BBC News)
Prof. John Kurakar
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